Huntleigh Technologies taken over by Getinge in £409m deal
9 December 2006 Getinge, Sweden. Swedish company Getinge AB has
launched a takeover bid for the UK's Huntleigh Technology plc. Getinge has
reported that its offer has been unanimously recommended by the Board of
Huntleigh and accepted by shareholders representing 46.2% of the issued
share capital, including the principal share holders, the Schild family. It
has also received letters of intent from institutional shareholders
representing 17.4% of the current issued share capital. The offer values
Huntleigh at approximately £409 of million. This represents a premium of
about 28.0% on the closing price of 375 pence per ordinary share on 7
December 2006 and a premium of about 31% on the 6 month volume-weighted
average price (366p). Consequently, the Huntleigh share price shot up from
375 to 475.5 by close of trade on Friday 8 December. Huntleigh's product
areas are pressure area care, patient positioning and transportation (beds,
trolleys etc), intermittent pneumatic compression, and diagnostics and
monitoring equipment. Interim 2006 trading results showed strong performance
in overseas markets and lower than expected revenue from the UK. Total
revenue increased by 16.3% from £99.0m in 2005 to £115.2m in the first half
of 2006, with overseas trading up 26% and UK trade up only 0.8%.
Getinge is a leading supplier in infection control, extended care, and
medical systems — surgical workplaces, cardio-pulmonary and critical care
systems. It has a market value of SEK28bn (£2bn,
€3bn) and had net sales in 2005 of over
SEK5bn. If the takeover is completed as expected in January 2007,
Huntleigh will be integrated into Getinge Extended Care UK Limited, a wholly
owned subsidiary of Getinge AB. This will create a "globally leading player"
in patient handling, wound care and hygiene, with combined sales of
approximately SEK6 billion and over 4,400 employees. According to Getinge,
Huntleigh will be a "perfect complement to Extended Care in terms of
overlapping geographical presence and supplementary sales channels and
products" — Huntleigh's main customers are hospitals, while Extended Care's
are nursing homes. The merged company will have approximately 1,600
dedicated sales representatives and service technicians and will boost
Extended Care's weak market position within wound care. Getinge also sees
possibilities for future system innovations within patient care through
"total bedside management", which integrates patient lifters, beds and
information technology. Johan Malmquist, President and CEO of Getinge
said: "By combining both Groups, we can offer the combined customer base a
broader product portfolio and a better service offering. Extended Care's
business philosophy, to reduce care costs by increasing care quality and
efficiency, is well in line with Huntleigh´s. The synergies between Extended
Care and Huntleigh in terms of geography, products and sales channels are
highly attractive. It is our goal to immediately implement integration in
order to take advantage of the possibilities created by the merger. I look
forward to welcoming Huntleigh´s management and employees, whom we consider
to be very important to the future success of the business, into the Getinge
Group."
Julian Schild, Huntleigh´s Chairman of the Board, agrees: "We are convinced
that both our customers and employees will benefit from the merging of both
companies. We welcome Getinge´s positive opinion that Huntleigh´s management
and employees will play an important role in the future success of the
merged group." Further information: The full Getinge
press release
on the offer Getinge
financial reports
Huntleigh's
UK Rule 25 announcement (PDF file) Huntleigh's
interim results for 2006 (PDF file) To top
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